Instant Message, Instant Infection

It's getting harder to trust your IM buddies: A new worm in the wild purports to be a warning from one of your buddies about a computer virus.

The IM-Worm.Win32.Qucan.a. -- initially discovered by MicroWorld Technologies and subsequently dubbed by Trend Micro as WORM_SOHANAD.A -- is spreading in MSN Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, but not AIM. It started with a link to a "photo" of the new Miss World 2006 winner but has gotten more insidious in the past few days with a more legitimate-sounding message: "A new dangerous computer virus that can destroy all your data has just been released. Click here to know how to avoid it." Dark Reading - Desktop Security - Instant Message, Instant Infection - Security News Analysis